Ryan's "Watery" Face-Puncher IPA Extract Kit

Here's a new one. I've only done about 15 beers, but every time there's some obstacle to overcome. This time it concerns my Ryan's Face-Puncher IPA Extract Kit. It reached 1020 in 5 days in my fermentation chamber, which is amazing. It was under temp control in primary (I left it in 10 days) and secondary (1 week) before transferring to keg and putting under pressure for 2 weeks. I added 2 extra ounces of hops in boil (high beta in early boil, high alpha in final boil) and 2 ounces of Zithos hops in keg.

Just tasted it and is suuuuucks. Dry as hell, super watery, no body, no real hop aroma, dry bitter finish.

S**t. And I brewed this for a party on the 30th.

So anyone have a solution to help this swag become drinkable for a party on the 30th?

Appreciate it.

Just like salt in cooking a little sweetness goes a long ways in bringing hop flavors to the front... You may try adding a LITTLE lactose as in 2-3 ounces

So what's the thought on letting out all the CO2, adding lactose (and perhaps more hops?), and putting back on C02 (thinking hitting it with 30 for couple days and then setting to 12lbs for a week)?

Better yet, would I boil the lactose and add or simply toss it?

So it sounds like its its been 4 weeks from grain to glass?
I would wait another week or two, before I would use lactose...
Fg was 1020?
Your beer shouldnt be that dry....
I bet you arent use to soo many hops hitting your pallete..maybe?
Whats the recipe?
igotsand

Whoops, on accident I added the FG of my latest Belgian Dubbel. Sorry about that. The thought of not being used to so many hops scared me back to my senses. I regularly drink beers in the 75 to 100 IBU range, and I frequent the Mikkeller 1000 IBU.

Let me try that again. The FG was 1009 and I'm guessing it dropped a fraction of a percent since I last tested.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/RyansFacePuncherIPA.pdf

The big difference here is that I made a double starter and the second time it became highly active and overflowed. When I crashed that starter to decant I noticed my yeast had reduced to very little at the bottom of the flask, but after pitching it became highly active so I didn't worry about it.

1.009? Sounds absolutely perfect to me, love dry IPA's. Are you doing full boils? How long have the dry hops been in the keg before tasting, it looks like 2 weeks, which should be plenty of time to taste and smell those.

I'm with duck, 1.009 sounds great for a IPA, but I do love me some dry ones.

If you're set on messing with it though, here's what I would do:
1) Maltodextrin for body, not lactose. Boil up 4-8oz, add it to the warmed up keg and stir.
2) Warm that keg up and dry hop it again. I can't tell if you dry hopped when cold or warm, but warm, yeast free environments are a good place for dry hopping.
3) Chill, carb, serve.

Amanda, I'll give it a try. I dry hopped in the keg and it's been sitting in the garage with temp swings of around 60-80 degrees, but mostly around ~70 (that is, it was 80 in there for a few hours one day, but mostly it's cooler).

I can move the keg upstairs into an environment of around 75-82 degrees and add more, yes, more hops. Perhaps Zithos just isn't a good dry hopping hop?

If I move the keg indoors tonight I"ll be ready to backsweeten (or, in this case, backbody) tomorrow night. I'll then hit it with 30psi and store it until the 30th, when it's needed.

I'll report back. Thanks for the tips!!

Went to the local homebrew store and talked with a guy there a bit about this beer. Together we came to the inconclusive conclusion that two things are possible. One: I notice when brewing that the grains didn't seem correctly crushed. I didn't sweat it because it's Northern and they don't often mess up. It never occurred to me again until I tasted the beer and noticed the lack of body. I described the beer to the guy at the store and that was the first thing he asked me "were the grains crushed?" Two: He brought up the issue of the beer not tasting like it has much alcohol, even though the readings tell me it should be a rocket. He theorized the extracts might have been sub-par or contained corn sugar. To test he suggested I drink a full glass of it and feel the effects, in addition to more scientific tests.

I walked away with a pound and a half of crushed grains (2 kinds of specialty and 1/2 lb of wheat for body) to do a concentrated 4 cup boil, and the Maltodextrin, of which I'll probably add about 5 ounces. He also suggested pitching some dry yeast, but I didn't do it because I'll be transferring a RIPA in a few days and could make a dinky starter and possibly pitch that. I also moved the keg into our upstairs, where it's currently in the 70s.

Seems like a lot of back stepping to save this beer, but it's worth it and I'm up to the challenge of making this beer glorious. Or, uh, drinkable.

In addition, I'll dry hop with a couple more ounces of either pellet Zythos or whole leaf Amarillo. . . or both.

Only time will tell.

Hoping to report good things.

My first thought was the same as your LHBS guy. Did you take an OG reading? I had an identical experience with a hefe--took an OG sample for recording purposes but didn't bother to put the hydrometer in until later. Turned out my new mill's gap was way wide and the poor crush gave me half the expected gravity.

Tasted watery & weak, just as you report. FWIW.

Hmm... the crush is an interesting theory. Did you take an OG reading? If so, what was it?

Also, Zythos should be just fine for dry hopping. It's a blend of other popular PNW hops. Perhaps the temperature swings in the keg (60-80*) encouraged the dry hopping to subside quicker then you were planning.

Midterm report.

So I brewed up more grain and added another 2 oz. of whole leaf hops. Waited a week and it poured like light chocolate milk and tasted horrible. I though I'd ruined it, but continued to wait.

Took a gravity a couple days later and it had cleared significantly and tasted more delicate, but still as if there isn't enough alcohol. *I did take an OG, but the numbers don't make sense because it really tastes like there is no alcohol. (And sorry, I don't have them on me right now, but I will post them later.)

On Sunday I added gelatin, on Monday evening I put it in the cooler to crash. Tuesday evening I began force carbing for a party on Saturday. I should be able to drain off all the residual on Friday and see how it turned out. Keeping fingers crossed for this Frankenstein ale.

If it borks I'll remove CO2 over the course of a week, sit at room temperature, add a tad more yeast, and put it away for a month. I'm not giving up on this one.

Reporting back again. The beer clarified, sweetened and turned out pretty good. It's certainly not a DIPA, more of a pale. It's not a bad beer after all, but not a go to in terms of my current lineup. So the changes fixed it and made it drinkable, which is amazing.